Mayfair was born in Phoenix, Arizona. Before his fifteenth birthday, he won numerous junior golf tournaments. In 1981, he was on the cover of Boys' Life magazine as "golf's junior hotshot". He attended Arizona State University and was a member of the golf team. He won the 1986 U.S. Amateur Public Links and the 1987 U.S. Amateur, defeating University of Tennessee graduate Eric Rebmann 4&3. He won the 1987 Haskins Award for the nation's top collegiate golfer.

Professional career

Mayfair turned professional in 1988 and has won five events on the PGA Tour, including the 1995 Tour Championship. He has featured in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Rankings, going as high as 26th in 1996. He holds the distinction of being the only player to ever beat Tiger Woods in a playoff on the PGA Tour (1998 Nissan Open).

Mayfair was the medalist at the 2010 PGA Tour's Qualifying School. He finished 142nd on the Tour money list that year, which granted him conditional status for 2011. He finished the 2011 season 109th on the money list and retained his tour card for 2012. In 2013 and 2014 Mayfair split his playing time between the PGA Tour and the Web.com Tour, playing mostly on the Web.com Tour in 2014. During his PGA Tour career, Mayfair made 761 starts and earned over $20.3 million. In 2016, he joined PGA Tour Champions.

Personal life

Mayfair lives in Scottsdale, Arizona where he plays out of Estrella Mountain Ranch Golf Club. On July 31, 2006, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He had surgery on August 3 of that year and it has been reported that the cancer was contained. In April 2021 he announced that he had been diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in November 2019.

Amateur wins

this list may be incomplete

1986 U.S. Amateur Public Links
1987 Pacific Coast Amateur, U.S. Amateur
1988 Pacific Coast Amateur

Professional wins (5)

PGA Tour wins (5)

Legend
Tour Championships (1)
Other PGA Tour (4)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	Sep 5, 1993	Greater Milwaukee Open	−18 (67-66-69-68=270)	Playoff	Mark Calcavecchia, Ted Schulz
2	Jul 9, 1995	Motorola Western Open	−9 (73-70-69-67=279)	1 stroke	Jay Haas, Justin Leonard, Jeff Maggert, Scott Simpson
3	Oct 29, 1995	The Tour Championship	E (68-70-69-73=280)	3 strokes	Steve Elkington, Corey Pavin
4	Mar 1, 1998	Nissan Open	−12 (65-71-69-67=272)	Playoff	Tiger Woods
5	Aug 9, 1998	Buick Open	−17 (70-69-65-67=271)	2 strokes	Scott Verplank

PGA Tour playoff record (2–5)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	1990	Greater Milwaukee Open	Ed Dougherty, Jim Gallagher Jr.	Gallagher won with par on first extra hole
2	1990	Nabisco Championship	Jodie Mudd	Lost to birdie on first extra hole
3	1993	Greater Milwaukee Open	Mark Calcavecchia, Ted Schulz	Won with birdie on fourth extra hole Schulz eliminated by par on first hole
4	1995	Phoenix Open	Vijay Singh	Lost to par on first extra hole
5	1995	NEC World Series of Golf	Greg Norman, Nick Price	Norman won with birdie on first extra hole
6	1998	Nissan Open	Tiger Woods	Won with birdie on first extra hole
7	2001	WorldCom Classic - The Heritage of Golf	José Cóceres	Lost to par on fifth extra hole

Results in major championships

Tournament	1988	1989
Masters Tournament	CUT
U.S. Open	T25LA	T33
The Open Championship
PGA Championship

Tournament	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
Masters Tournament		T12	T42		CUT		CUT		CUT	CUT
U.S. Open	CUT	T37	T23		CUT		T32			T10
The Open Championship							T45		T52	CUT
PGA Championship	T5	CUT	CUT	T28	T39	T23	T52	T53	T7	T34

Tournament	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Masters Tournament			T32	T37			T14	59		CUT
U.S. Open	CUT		T5	T10	66		CUT			T40
The Open Championship		T3	CUT							T52
PGA Championship	T74	CUT	CUT	T61		CUT	T37	T60	T47

Top 10

Did not play

LA = Low Amateur
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

Summary

Tournament	3rd	Top-5	Top-10	Top-25	Events	Cuts made
Masters Tournament	0	0	0	2	12	6
U.S. Open	0	1	3	5	14	10
The Open Championship	1	1	1	1	6	4
PGA Championship	0	1	2	3	18	13
Totals	1	3	6	11	50	33

Most consecutive cuts made – 4 (three times)
Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (six times)

Results in The Players Championship

Tournament	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
The Players Championship	CUT	CUT	T73	T67	T52	CUT	T18	CUT	CUT	T42	CUT

Tournament	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
The Players Championship	T17	T5	CUT	CUT	T58		CUT	CUT	72	T32

Tournament	2010	2011	2012
The Players Championship			CUT

Top 10

Did not play

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Results in World Golf Championships

Tournament	1999	2000	2001	2002	2005	2009
Match Play	R64	R32		R64
Championship			NT¹		T25	T77
Invitational
Champions

¹Cancelled due to 9/11

Did not play

QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = Tied
NT = No tournament
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.